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Privacy

Overview

Overview

The Paragon Group of Companies PLC and its subsidiaries (“The Paragon Group”) is committed to keeping your information private. You can visit our website without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. However, if you give us any personal information about yourself or others we promise to treat it securely, fairly and lawfully. By ‘your information’ we mean any information about you that you or third parties provide to us.

When we ask you for personal information online it will only be in response to you actively applying for or using one of our online products or services.

If you are giving us information for the first time we shall explain the purposes for which we shall use it.

Information we collect from you

Information we collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

When applying for a product we will ask you to provide some information about yourself for security, identification and verification purposes

When completing any forms, we will always tell you how your information will be used in relation to the product or service you are applying for within the declaration and in any associated terms and conditions

When you provide any information about others (eg for a joint account) you must ensure that you have their consent or are otherwise entitled to provide the information to us

We will retain information collected about you for as long as permitted for legitimate business purposes in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

When we may share your information

When we may share your information

We will always treat your personal information as private and confidential, but may share it within The Paragon Group and outside The Paragon Group if:

Allowed by this agreement

You, as our customer, give us your consent

Needed by our agents, advisers or others involved in running accounts and services for you or collecting what you owe to The Paragon Group

Needed by subcontractors to help us manage your records

HM Revenues and Customs or other authorities that require it

The law, regulatory bodies, or the public interest permits or requires it

Required by us or others to investigate or prevent crime

To any other parties connected with your account (including guarantors)

Sharing your information to assist...

Sharing your information to assist with asset buying or selling

The Paragon Group may in the future wish to sell, transfer or merge part or all of their business or assets, or any associated rights or interests, or to acquire a business or enter into a merger with it. If so, they may disclose your personal information to a potential buyer, transferee, or merger partner or seller and their advisers so long as they agree to keep it confidential and to use it only to consider the possible transaction. If the transaction goes ahead, the buyers, transferee or merger partner may use or disclose your personal information in the same way as set out in this notice.

Sharing your personal information between...

Sharing your personal information between first and second charge lenders

If you have arranged either a first or second mortgage with us, we may be required to share information with other lenders who also hold a charge on your property.

Joint applicants

Joint applicants

If you are providing us with another individual’s (such as a joint applicant) personal information then you should not do so unless you have received their permission. Where information you have provided about someone else, or where someone has disclosed information about you, we may add it to the information we already possess and it will be used as described in this privacy notice.

Using credit scoring

Using credit scoring

When applying for credit, a system known as credit scoring may be used when considering whether to accept a customer’s request to borrow. It is a method of assessing the likely conduct of an account based on data showing a customer’s previous borrowing. It is a system widely used by credit providers to help make fair and informed decisions on lending.

Credit scoring takes customer account information from four sources – the information you provide on your application, information provided by credit reference agencies, information provided by other organisations and information that may already be held about you by companies within the Paragon Group. A credit scoring system will consider information from these sources to make an overall assessment of your application.

Using fraud prevention agencies

Using fraud prevention agencies

We have systems designed to protect ourselves and our customers against fraud and other crime. We are able to utilise customer information as a tool to prevent crime and trace those responsible. We will also share your personal information from your application with fraud prevention agencies as well as law enforcement agencies if they require it. We and other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example, when:

Checking the details of job applicants and employees

Recovering debt

How we check your identity

How we check your identity

You may be required to provide physical forms of identity verification when you arrange a product. Alternatively, we may search credit reference agency files in assessing your application. The agency will also provide us with other details from the Electoral Register to help verify your identity. It must also be noted that the agency keeps a hold of our search, regardless of whether your application proceeds or not.

Undertaking anti-money laundering checks

Undertaking anti-money laundering checks

In order to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, we may be required to confirm (or reconfirm) the name and address of our customers. We may also share this information with other areas within The Paragon Group.

Obtaining information about you, and other personal details

Obtaining information about you, and other personal details

When applying for a mortgage or further borrowing it may be necessary to obtain details of your existing financial commitments, references and any other information which we may require to assess or review lending risks, detect or prevent fraud or recover debts. Where applicable, we may also be required to contact your current and previous employer, accountant, landlord, lender, bank, insurance or pension company.

Using your details for service contact

Using your details for service contact

Ensuring we deliver excellent customer service is extremely important to us as a business, and to do this various methods of communication may be used when we are required to contact you. The majority of the time, such correspondence will be made up of letters, phone calls, texts or emails.

Recording phone calls

Recording phone calls

We may also monitor or record phone calls with you in order to ensure we have carried out your instructions correctly, resolve queries or issues, to improve our quality of service, for regulatory purposes and also to help prevent or detect fraud or other crimes. We also record conversations for employee training purposes.

Using your personal data

Using your personal data

The Data Protection Act 1998 puts obligations on users of personal data and lays down principles for its use. Principle 1 states that information has to be processed fairly and lawfully. This means that you are entitled to know how we intend to use any information you provide. You can then decide whether you want to give it to us.

The Data Protection Act obliges organisations to lodge a notification with the Information Commissioner describing the purposes for which they process personal information. The details are publicly available from the Commissioner's office at: